Robert Hugh Benson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Hugh Benson

Photo of Benson by G. Jerrard, 1912
Born Robert Hugh Benson
(1871-11-18)November 18, 1871
Wellington College, Berkshire
Died October 19, 1914(1914-10-19)
Bishop's House, Salford
Parents Edward White Benson and Mary Sidgwick Benson
Church Roman Catholic
Ordained 1904

Robert Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS (18 November 1871 – 19 October 1914) was an English Anglican priest who joined the Roman Catholic Church (1903) in which he was reordained priest in 1904. He was lauded in his own day as one of the leading figures in English literature, having written the notable book Lord of The World.

Life

Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson (Archbishop of Canterbury) and his wife, Mary. He was the younger brother of Edward Frederic Benson.

Benson was educated at Eton College and then studied classics and theology at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1890 to 1893.[1]

In 1895, Benson was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his father who was the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

After his father died suddenly in 1896, Benson was sent on a trip to the Middle East to recover his own health. While there he began to question the status of the Church of England and to consider the claims of the Catholic Church. His own piety began to tend toward the High Church tradition and he started exploring religious life in various Anglican communities, eventually obtaining permission to join the Community of the Resurrection.

Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. As he continued his studies and began writing, however, he became more and more uneasy with his own doctrinal position and, on 11 September 1903, he was received into the Catholic Church. He was awarded the Dignitary of Honour of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Benson was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1904 and sent to Cambridge. He continued his writing career along with his ministry as a priest.

Like both his brothers, Edward Frederic Benson ("Fred") and Arthur Christopher Benson, Robert wrote many ghost stories, collected in The Light Invisible (1903) and The Mirror of Shallott (1907). Seven of these stories are included in David Stuart Davies' (ed) The Temple of Death: The Ghost Stories of A.C. and R.H. Benson (Wordsworth, 2007) along with nine by his brother Arthur. His 1907 novel, Lord of the World, is generally regarded as one of the first modern dystopias (see List of dystopian literature).

As a young man, Benson recalled, he had rejected the idea of marriage as “quite inconceivable”.[2] Then, in 1904, soon after his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest, he formed a chaste but passionate friendship with Frederick Rolfe. For two years this relationship involved letters “not only weekly, but at times daily, and of an intimate character, exhaustingly charged with emotion”.[3] All letters were subsequently destroyed, probably by Benson’s brother.[4]

Benson was appointed a supernumerary private chamberlain to the Pope in 1911 and, consequently, styled as Monsignor.

Gallery

  • Benson, age 5, by R. Slingsby, 1876

  • Benson, age 17, by Hills & Sounders, 1889

  • Benson, age 21, by Elliott & Fry, 1893

  • Benson, aged 35, by Russell & Sons, 1907

  • Benson, aged 40, by Sarony, 1912

  • Benson, age 40

  • Benson, aged 41, 1913

Works

Science fiction

Historical fiction

Contemporary Fiction

Children's Books

Devotional Works

Apologetic Works

Plays

Articles

Other

Notes

  1. ↑ "Benson, Robert Hugh (BN890RH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. 
  2. ↑ Benson, Robert Hugh. Confessions of a Convert, Longmans, Green and Co., 1913.
  3. ↑ Martindale, C. C. The Life of Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, Vol. 2, Longmans, Green & Co., 1916, page 96
  4. ↑ Hilliard, David. "UnEnglish and UnManly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality" in Victorian Studies, Winter 1982.
  5. ↑ "The Dawn of All," The Bookman, September 1911.
  6. ↑ Cooper, Frederick Taber. "The Accustomed Manner and Some Recent Novels," The Bookman, May 1914.

References

  • Benson, Arthur B. Hugh: Memoir of a Brother, Smith, Elder & Co., 1915.
  • Bleiler, Everett. The Checklist of Fantastic Literature, Shasta Publishers, 1948.
  • Bour'his, Jean Morris le. Robert Hugh Benson, Homme de Foi et Artiste, Atelier Reproduction de Thèses, Université de Lille III, 1980.
  • Braybrooke, Patrick. Some Catholic Novelists, Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1931.
  • Brown, Stephen James Meredith & McDermott, Thomas. A Survey of Catholic Literature, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1945.
  • Concannon, Helena. "Robert Hugh Benson, Novelist," Part II, The Catholic World, Vol. XCIX, April/September, 1914.
  • Gorce, Agnès de La. Robert Hugh Benson: Prêtre et Romancier, 1871-1914, Plon, 1928.
  • Grayson, Janet. Robert Hugh Benson: Life and Works, University Press of America, 1998.
  • Watt, Reginald J. J. Robert Hugh Benson: Captain in God's Army, Burns & Oates Ldt, 1918.
  • Warre Cornish, Blanche. Memorials of Robert Hugh Benson, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1914.
  • Mahon, Joseph H. "The Late Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson," Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. XXVI, 1915.
  • Monaghan, Sister Mary Saint Rita. Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson: His Apostolate and Its Message for Our Time, Boolarong Press, 1985.
  • Martindale, C. C. The Life of Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, Vol. 2, Longmans, Green & Co., 1916.
  • Ross, Allan. Monsignor Hugh Benson (1871-1914), The Catholic Thruth Society, 1915.
  • Parr, Olive Katherine. Robert Hugh Benson: An Appreciation, Hutchinson & Co., 1915.
  • Shuster, Norman. "Robert Hugh Benson and the Aging Novel." In The Catholic Spirit in Modern English Literature, The Macmillan Company, 1922.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Hugh Benson.
Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.